The present disclosure is directed to determining a pair of compliance events for Positron Emission Tomography (PET).
When using PET, a tracer having positrons may be injected into a subject. Annihilation may occur if the positrons e+ released by the tracer during the decay process interact with negative electrons e− existing within the subject so as to generate a pair of γ photons having the same energy (approximately 511 KeV) and opposite propagation directions (about 180 degrees). Such events may be called positron annihilation events. The γ photons generated in the above-mentioned positron annihilation events may be detected by using a PET detector. Typically, a detection of a γ photon detected by the PET detector may be called a detection of an event, and a detection of two γ photons from the same positron annihilation event may be called a detection of a pair of compliance events. An occurrence position of the annihilation may be determined by detecting compliance events, and thus a concentration distribution of the tracer within the subject may be obtained by analysing existence of positrons.
When determining a pair of compliance events, processes of several stages, for example a sorting, a time compliance, and a space compliance, may be performed on the event data collected by the PET detector in order to finally obtain the compliance event. The process of the sort may be a time-consuming and storage-consuming step and usually may be implemented by storage sorting algorithms, wherein each of the events may be sorted according to occurrence times.
NEUSOFT MEDICAL SYSTEMS CO., LTD. (NMS), founded in 1998 with its world headquarters in China, is a leading supplier of medical equipment, medical IT solutions, and healthcare services. NMS supplies medical equipment with a wide portfolio, including CT, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), digital X-ray machine, ultrasound, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Linear Accelerator (LINAC), and biochemistry analyser. Currently, NMS' products are exported to over 60 countries and regions around the globe, serving more than 5,000 renowned customers. NMS's latest successful developments, such as 128 Multi-Slice CT Scanner System, Superconducting MRI, LINAC, and PET products, have led China to become a global high-end medical equipment producer.